A team of researchers has demonstrated a new way to change the amount of electrons that reside in a given region within a piece of graphene, they have a proof-of-principle in making the fundamental building blocks of semiconductor devices using the 2-D material.

Multitasking circuits capable of reconfiguring themselves in real time and switching functions as the need arises -- this is the promising application stemming from a new discovery. Other potential uses: miniaturizing our electronic devices and developing resilient circuits.

Graphene has many desirable properties. Magnetism alas is not one of them. Magnetism can be induced in graphene by doping it with magnetic impurities, but this tends to disrupt graphene's electronic properties. Now physicists have found a way to induce magnetism in graphene while also preserving graphene's electronic properties. They have accomplished this by bringing a graphene sheet very close to a magnetic insulator -- an electrical insulator with magnetic properties.